The Cube

The crew were asleep
When the medic saw the cube
Black, flat, absorbing of light
Sitting outside the ship on the flats of methane ice
Her coffee dropped onto the floor
They all rose and ran
To windows
and monitors
and keyboards
and watched and listened and looked
from one to another
then to the captain
With a word, they suited up
and moved out into the icy cold
poisonous air
of Titan

The cube sat
still
silent
black and flat
and the ice below
brown
mottled
creaked under its weight
and it watched the crew
of the ship Expediter
as they wondered what to do

Cameras, probes, devices
all failed their job
so the men and women recorded
and streamed
their observations
Back to earth
Where a worried series of men
and women
wondered what would happen
and devised a scheme
that was minutes away

For the ship, the other ship
the cubic black ship
flat
absorbing of light
began to groan
as it’s doors began to open
facing north, away from the humans
and their ship
along the shore
who tried to cover their ears
in vain
who tried to shield their eyes
in vain
And who tried to keep out the sound and vibration
and smoke like apparitions
from entering their suits
in vain
and the suits rose from where they fell
and as the morning winds on Kraken Mare began to blow
they returned to the ship
and the ship’s door closed
and the ship rose into their air
and headed home to earth
many hundreds of days away